For Nothing
by redwallanderson
Summary: Iris can't bring her brother back, but she can try to make things right for what she did to Lucas in Raleigh's name. She has to decide... Would Iris rather cut her losses.. Or return to the game to help Lucas' sisters? EDIT- In response to a review, yes I'll try to work in that character if possible.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One: For Nothing**

Iris had tried to save him but it was too late. Her little brother Raleigh was pronounced dead at the scene. They wheeled his corpse away under a sheet and she just watched. Raleigh had always been there and it wasn't easy to come to grips with the fact that he was gone. To come to grips with the fact that Lucas was gone, and for nothing!

To come to grips with the fact that she had murdered him for nothing. Iris was a murderer... a murderess. Her cell phone was ringing..

"Hello? Yes, this is Iris speaking.."

Her voice soft, dreamy.. Another voice in the back of her mind snide, mocking.. _This is Iris the murderess speaking_..

"This is Shepard Lambrick.. I don't imagine you've forgotten me just yet, have you Iris?"

That irritating man.. That monster's smug voice.. Iris leaned her forehead against the cool glass of the living room window, shut her eyes tightly.. Lambrick's voice brought to mind in vivid color a flood of memories she desperately wished to bury six feet deep in the back of her mind.

"Well, listen to me carefully Iris because I have a proposition. We have heard about the tragic.. passing of your brother and we're willing to give you an opportunity."

A brief pause as if he was politely waiting for Iris to respond. Her faint whistling breath was the only reply. Lambrick chuckled and continued unabated.

"Lucas had three sisters, as I'm sure you remember him mentioning.. We are willing to give you the chance to win another game, as defending champion.. And provide salvation for these three little girls you so cruelly doomed.."

Silence from Iris' end now. Tears were leaking down her cheeks as she remembered the shocked betrayal and horror in Lucas' eyes the instant after she pulled the trigger. He hadn't feared for himself but for his sisters, just as she had feared for Raleigh.. They were no different and she could have just walked away with him.. empty-handed but alive.

"When?" she whispered hoarsely. "I'm.. not sure I'd be much of a player at the moment. My brother's funeral.. I have a lot to take care of and I have a _knife wound in my STOMACH_ and I.."

Lambrick chuckled again and Iris shuddered, had to fight back the urge to gag. She could still faintly taste a $10,000 biteful of steak and foie gras.. Memories of a $50,000 decanter of Scotch and an echoing gunshot were even more troubling..

"Iris, Iris, Iris.." Shepard Lambrick was saying. "This is not a negotiation. Do you think I've forgotten that you tried to kill my son? Whether it was an act of self-defense or not is beside the point.. I am throwing you a bone here Iris.. when I really have no reason to do so. My family's foundation traditionally only puts on this game once annually. You may take it or leave it."

"I'll take it," Iris whispered, trying to take deep breaths and keep calm. She had another question but she wasn't quite sure if she wanted to know the answer.. "Who was the "defending champion" this year?"

"Linda," Lambrick said with a full-bellied laugh, seeming absolutely delighted by that tidbit. "She didn't seem to remember that though so I didn't think announcing her as the defending champion would be necessary... Dinner will be served tomorrow night and a car will pick you up same as before."

 _Click_. Iris stared at her phone's screen in a daze as the call ended.

She found herself drifting back through the house to the doorway of Raleigh's bedroom. The thought that she would never come in to find him here again, doing his goofy teenager things.. She couldn't bring him back, nothing could now.. but she could at least try and finish what Lucas had started. If there was something beyond life, she wanted to be able to meet Lucas and look him in the eye.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "Oh God, I'm going back... I'm so sorry Raleigh.. I'm so sorry Lucas.."

Iris felt her breath catch in her throat as the limousine door clicked open. It was an intense sensation of déjà vu, mixed with impending dread. The Lambrick manor and estate sprawled out before her in all its glory but she had already been here before. Now she knew what waited inside. It was an even more breathtaking view now.. just for far different reasons.

An expressionless man in a suit led Iris to and through the manor's front door. Waiting for her was the cold-eyed valet Bevans. The hint of a mirthless smile tugged at the corners of the former MI5 agent's lips.

"Welcome back marm," he said in the smooth, clipped accent and tone which didn't nearly match his reptilian eyes. "The other guest is waiting this way.."

"Guest?" she asked as she followed in his wake.

"There's only one so far," Bevans growled in a voice that more than indicated further conversation wouldn't be necessary. "You're early this time."


	2. Chapter 2: Be My Guests

CHAPTER 2: BE MY GUESTS

Iris looked back over her shoulder uncertainly as she was led through the sliding glass doors by Bevins. Her gut was churning and warning her uneasily that this could very, very easily end up being a suicide mission.

"We've had to skip dinner before this particular playing of the game," Bevins said almost apologetically, "due to its short notice…"

He showed Iris to her assigned seat at the parlor table. Across from her and at the other end of the table sat a handsome young African-American man wearing a goatee and sunglasses, arms crossed across his chest. He was wearing a Muhammad Ali sweater. Iris liked him immediately.

"I'm Dustin," the young man said, taking off his sunglasses and smiling warmly at her. "Dustin Bryant. I'm pleased to meet you."

"My name's Iris and it's nice to meet you, too."

They shook hands and Dustin glanced at Bevins, at the silent, cold-faced men standing all around the room… at the guns holstered on their hips. Dustin's eyes flicked back up to meet Iris' own and narrowed slightly.

"I don't know about you but I don't have a good feeling about this place," he remarked, pulling out a pack of Newports and offering her one; she accepted it even though she had never smoked a cigarette in her life. "Hey, is it okay if we smoke in here?" Dustin asked sarcastically, glancing over to Bevins.

Bevins regarded Dustin through emotionless, almost reptilian eyes for several moments.. and nodded once before turning back to a quiet conference with one of his staff.

Dustin rolled his eyes dramatically and Iris had to bite her bottom lip to keep from giggling aloud. He smiled and lit her cigarette, then his own. It had to be some sort of hysteria eating away at her. Raleigh was DEAD and Lucas and maybe.. Maybe Dustin soon.

"You know something about this.. competition or game or whatever they keep talking about?" he asked; his eyes regarding her with measured scrutiny that Iris admired despite being the target of it. She took a drag of her cigarette and nodded, coughed. His lips twitched in another brief smile.

"I… shouldn't have come here today," she said softly, looking around the room and seeming to hear the echoes of screams.

A thought sprang unbidden to her mind and had her shivering uncontrollably in the comfortably heated room. Maybe Lucas and the others were still here, watching her.. Waiting for Iris to join them. Lucas should have won, they would whisper when she had finally been eliminated. He died for nothing. It should have been you.

"I shouldn't have come here today," she said again. "Just a couple of days ago I.. played this game and.. won it," Iris confessed, suddenly unable to meet Dustin's eyes, terrified of what she might see there.

He grinned and ashed his cigarette, glanced over at Bevins. Dustin half-stood from his chair so he could lean down the table and pat Iris' hands, which were folded together on the table in front of her. She looked up at him with surprise-widened eyes.

"Thank you," he said, maintaining that eye contact. "Now I know who to bet on."

They both broke up laughing and Bevins yanked Dustin backwards into his seat. That got Dustin and Iris both laughing again and they were just starting to regain their composure when the third guest was announced. The doors slid open.


	3. Chapter 3

_**CHAPTER THREE**_

"The third guest has arrived," Bevins announced in the smooth, pleasant accent which didn't nearly match those cold snake eyes.

A young man who couldn't have been any older than nineteen stepped into the room, seeming a bit nervous and agitated. His eyes darted from the floor to Bevin's face and back again. His hands were both fidgeting and pulling at each other. He looked to be quite neurotic - either that or autistic. Iris instantly felt protective of him.. and also a bit disgusted.

"There are place cards," Bevin said patiently, gesturing towards the table where Iris and Dustin had ceased laughing.

They were gazing curiously at this young man who timidly circled the table before settling into his assigned seat, on Iris' right. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and didn't feel at all like laughing any more, maybe not ever again. That was where Cal had sat.. on her right. Poor, brave Cal. He had tried to save them all.

 _Where's Cal_? she heard herself whispering.. heard the others replying.. _They shot him_. As if he had disappeared into thin air while she had been gone.

"….you okay, miss?"

Iris blinked and looked around, startled out of her haunted memories. Dustin was smirking and pointing to her right. She turned and there was the third guest looking at her from behind thick eyeglasses. His.. striking blue eyes were magnified by the lens' and seemed to float behind them in a milky lake. Iris thought to herself that Zach's eyes might honestly have been rather attractive otherwise.

"Oh," she said, a bit taken aback by how close he was – and his breath. He'd had spaghetti for dinner last night apparently… "No, I'm-I'm fine, thank you.. Just bad memories of this place. This room.."

The young man stared down at his folded, occasionally fidgety hands on the tabletop, and was silent for a time.

"I'm Zach.. Zach Maron," he said at last. "You mentioned that you've been here before? Can you tell me what this.. competition entails, please? I think I might be having second thoughts about entering it after all.."

Iris bit her bottom lip. Now it was her turn to stare down at her hands folded neatly on the tabletop in front of her.

"If.. you don't absolutely need the help they're offering," she said, choosing every word very carefully, "then, when they offer to let you leave before the game officially begins… Accept their offer. That's all you need to know."

She looked down the table and her eyes and tone softened almost imperceptibly. Dustin blinked back at her.

"Accept their offer," she said again.

The other five guests trickled in a bit more quickly now, two arriving at nearly the same time in fact. In order of arrival they were:

 **#1** : A balding older man who reluctantly introduced himself as Gene. He was seated on Dustin's left.

 **#2** : A young Hispanic woman named Donna who sat down at the end of the table across from Dustin. She smacked the chewing gum in her mouth, letting her tongue linger past her lips for a moment to lick at them suggestively.

 _(Dustin just raised an eyebrow at her before glancing at Iris, who smiled)._

 **#3** : A young Hispanic man named Henry who was apparently Donna's brother. Even Gene - sitting across from Henry now - looked up in interest when that tidbit came up in conversation. It turned out that the siblings both just needed help for different reasons.

 _("We both just hope we can help each other out, no matter which one of us wins," Henry said optimistically. To his immediate right Donna was rolling her eyes)._

 **#4** : A completely bald, muscular man calling himself Tony. Iris could tell immediately that he was an unusual, eccentric character. For one thing he was dressed in what Iris could only think of as.. an Elvis costume. Luckily he did not try to strike up conversation about (possibly?) being an Elvis impersonator and what that job entailed. He sat at one end of the table, across from Zach.

 _(He turned to Donna, winked at her and she looked away, muttering "Not a chance John Wayne Gacy…")_

 **#5** : A very lithe and thin woman in her thirties who spoke with a Russian accent, of all things. Her name was Natascha and Iris was glad she hadn't asked aloud if the eighth and final guest was Russian.

 _(Natascha politely but firmly corrected Tony who commented "Some vodka and a hotel room, Saturday night, on me? I like Russian girls…" as Natascha sat down on his left. "I'm Austrian," she said and smiled at Zach who offered her a lighter for the cigarette between her pert, rosebud-red lips.)_

Shep Lambrick strolled into the room and behind him limped his son Julian. Iris glared at him with wide eyes and Julian stared back with fury in his own eyes. _**You fucking bitch**_ , he mouthed at her when he was sure his dad wasn't looking.

"Due to the short notice of this particular playing of our game, I must congratulate all of you alternates. This is the first time we're actually bringing in those we initially reject, because we think so highly of our defending champion."

He smiled down the table at Iris who fought the urge to vomit, her heart racing and her stomach churning. Outwardly she managed to appear calm and nodded back at Lambrick. Dustin stared at her as if he was seeing her for the first time, a puzzled smile fading from his lips. _He must have thought that I was joking somehow about having playing the game before_ , Iris realized.. _or that I was flirting.._

Lambrick was back to his speech, meanwhile. He explained the rules of the game, how one could be eliminated, what one could stand to win.

"Also due to the short notice of this particular playing of our game.. We've had to skip dinner and bring you all straight to the room in which our game will take place. We will also get started nearly right away… only pausing so that I can ask you whether you want to step out that door right now. If you would like to leave you may do so now.. but _only_ now."

Iris met Dustin's eyes and nodded. _**Go**_ , she mouthed, _**Please**_!


	4. Chapter 4 - The Whipping Boy Walks

_**CHAPTER FOUR**_

Dustin looked away, appearing disinterested. Lambrick's eyes lingered on Iris before he nodded, accepting the group's silence. Armed men quietly drew their pistols out into plain view and secured the doors. The whole time Lambrick's eyes stayed locked with Iris' own. He seemed almost awed.

"What's all this?" Gene asked grouchily, eyeing the gunmen without fear even so. "Is this really necessary, sir?"

Lambrick chuckled for a moment with nearly genuine mirth.

"Yes, I'm afraid so Eugene," he replied finally. "We've had violent uprisings of a sort during several past playings of our game... They will not harm you as long as you abide by the rules which I believe I have explained but which I will explain now in further detail..."

He turned to Bevans, who was wheeling in a little cart on which three small items lay.

"We are going to start right off the bat with something.. really quite interesting. I think you'd all agree the stakes of the original children's game _Would You Rather_? are usually quite harmless and trivial. Our version of the game is a bit more risky.."

Bevans and three other armed men silently, smoothly surrounded Tony's chair; he glanced around at them with bleary, puzzled eyes.

"Anthony.." Lambrick said with faux warmth. "You will do us the honor of being the first player. Set the bar high!"

The cart rolled up tight on Tony's left. A strange handgun lay atop its steel surface, as well as two bullets tucked neatly to one side.

"That's a German Luger," Zach whispered rapturously.

Bevans acknowledged him with a nod; Donna snorted laughter and earned a glare.

"Very apt observation Zachary," Lambrick commented dryly, "but I'd advise you to hold your tongue and avoid interrupting me. As I was saying.. Anthony, one of those bullets is a blank round while the other is an honest-to-God, live round.. You must load one of those bullets into the Luger with Bevans' assistance.. and pull the trigger."

Tony stared at Lambrick, his jaw slightly agape.

"Would you rather load one of those bullets into the Luger and aim it at your own head?" Lambrick asked. "Or would you rather load one of those bullets into the Luger and aim it at Natascha's head? You have fifteen seconds to decide."

The clock began audibly ticking and Lambrick sat back in his chair, eyes focused on Tony.

"Wuh-what?" Tony stammered finally, sitting up straighter. His gaze seemed to sharpen a bit. "I can't.. I can't do either of those things.. Is this a trick question? Is sh-"

"Five seconds," Bevans said softly.

"Illaimather," Tony said all at once, blinking panic over one shoulder at Bevans. "I decided, I decided god-damn it! I'll aim at HER!"

Tony was nervous. He groped for the cart with palms that were suddenly sweaty, his knees were weak, he could smell Zach's mom's spaghetti.. He selected one of the bullets at random and Bevans helped him load it into the gun. Natascha was staring at Zach, wild-eyed; one of the guards had jammed a pistol against the side of her head in case she tried to run or fight.

Iris and the others sat stiffly straight in their chairs, looking straight ahead or avoiding looking in the direction of Tony and Natascha. Natascha's pleading eyes searched and searched for reassurance that this wasn't real, that this was an elaborate prank.

"Pull the trigger," Lambrick ordered softly.

Iris glanced up from the tabletop, startled to realize Tony had the German pistol shoved between Natascha's lips. She tried to speak up even though she knew it would be futile. Her vocal cords didn't seem to work; she just stared blankly and watched it unfold.

"I'm sorry," Tony whispered, but something in his face wasn't sorry at all.

He pulled the trigger and the entire world exploded.

Iris felt something horribly cold, thick and slimy splash her cheek and hair - and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut. _Please God don't be brains_ , she whispered. _Please don't be brains_.

"Good selection," Lambrick said casually. "She isn't very pretty now, is she Zachary?"

Iris heard Zach start whimpering next to her and she kept her eyes squeezed shut. She wanted to help him but there was nothing she could do now. The longer Zach stayed alive, the greater the chance Iris wouldn't be able to stay alive either.

Iris looked up and blinked spatters of pink away from her eyelids. Tony was looking down at the empty pistol and whispering to it.

"Well," Lambrick said and chuckled once more. "Well, well.. It can't very well be Natascha's turn now can it?"

The rasp of Natascha's body bag being dragged away filled the pause Lambrick took. It was as if he had paused to contemplate that very sound, in fact.

"A brief pause though because.. I wasn't sure what choice Tony would make," Lambrick resumed once more, "or whose elimination I would be following up with this tidbit of information, but... We are going to be bringing in yet another alternate to take Natascha's place."

Lambrick met Iris' eyes once more and he smirked.

"Someone our defending champion knows quite well considering they've only met once," he said, sounding as smug as if he genuinely saw this as an upcoming sports event he was promoting. "A young man who has served his country and served this game, and who I could not bring myself to fully eliminate yet. Travis Schulke!"

Tears were leaking out past Iris' closed eyelids and she hung her head low. She prayed Lambrick was just fucking with her. If he was fit to play the game after what he'd already endured.. Iris had made a mistake in defending her paper championship. Travis was the real champion.

The doors slid open and limping footsteps entered slowly.


End file.
